Introduction

Princess Cruises calls itself the consummate host and the attitude toward cruising underlying in this assertion is manifest in the dining aboard Emerald Princess. As Maitre d' Hotel Generoso Mazzone explained: “We want the passengers to come back. What we want to create is a loyal Princess passenger. One that will be an advocate for Princess, talk about the lovely experience that they had to friends and family. I think this is the best publicity that you can have. So we are really aiming at creating a loyal advocate for our company.” “We focus very much on service. Every one who comes onboard must have previous experience. And once they come onboard, there is a period of transition just to make sure they get used to the kind of service that we provide. Customer satisfaction is most important, professionalism, menu knowledge, wine list knowledge, and attitude. They have to be friendly, outgoing, make the passenger feel at home, feel welcome, well looked after and feel that we want to see them back, that is really important. We try to keep the service as personal as possible even though it is a big ship with many passengers.”

Of course, if the food is not good, the best service in the world is not going to make for a happy cruise experience. “Quality, we make everything from scratch. Princess, is a really great product.”

In addition to enhancing quality, making everything from scratch allows Emerald Princess to serve people with restricted diets. “Passengers on certain diets cannot have certain things. If you buy something that is already prepared those ingredients may be inside. Making everything from scratch we are able to cater to these people.”

As maitre d' Mr. Mazzone hosts the ship's dining operation. “We have some professional cruisers, who cruise often and they know exactly what to expect, and we have others who cruise for the first time. I have to make sure that all the expectations are fulfilled.”

The Main Dining Rooms

On a cruise, “dining is very important and most of the time [it is] in the dining room.” In fact, Emerald Princess has three main dining rooms. All three are similar in size. They are all named after Italian Renaissance artists. In fact, the only real difference in the décor lies in reproductions of the various artists' work that hang on the walls. Only one of the dining rooms, the Da Vinci, is open for breakfast and lunch (sea days only). Both meals are offered on an open seating basis. For dinner, two of the dining rooms use Princess' flexible dining system, Anytime Dining, where guests who opt for that system can come to the dining room any time it is open. The third dining room follows the traditional passenger ship dining system. Each guest that opts for that system is assigned to a specific table at one of the two dinner seatings. All three dining rooms follow the same menus and have the same standards of service. All three utilize the same galley. With the introduction of its most recent set of menus, Princess moved “to make a more contemporary style of cuisine. We removed certain dishes that had been there for years and we put some new ones, things that are more up to date.” Mr. Mazzone observed that today, because of television and the internet, people are “seeing what is happening, what food is being served” around the world. “We have to please these people.” “Princess, I would say, in the past few years has been quite conservative. But now we have changed to a more contemporary style of cooking. We had to step up and provide this kind of innovation.” At the same time, Princess also included some “home style” dishes on the menus. “The company decided to place those dishes [on the menu] for those people who are not looking for sophisticated, elaborate dishes but something they are familiar with, that they are used to eating. There are 200 to 300 of these dishes. [They change] every day. They are quite well-accepted by the passengers.” The menu cycle also includes theme nights such as Italian night, where the menu features Italian cusine and the waiters dress in Italian costumes. There are also special menus that coincide with the ship's formal nights. There is a dress code for the main dining rooms. Each day, the daily program lists the evening's dress code. “We give guidelines. We suggest that the guests do certain things.” Most evenings, the dress code is “smart casual” which means a n open-neck shirt and slacks for men and a dress, skirt and blouse, or trouser suit for women. On formal nights, men are asked to wear a dinner jacket or dark business suit and women are asked to wear a full length evening gown, a coctail dress or a trouser suit. Some guests do object to having to wear a jacket and tie at any point during their vacation. However, to allow informally-dressed guests in the dining rooms on a formal night would diminish the cruise experience of the other

guests. “I think it is still important. Ladies and gentlemen love to come down dressed and love to see people dressed up. The ones that don't have options. It is not that they cannot have dinner. They can utilize some other venue [such as the Horizon Court], which is always available for them.”

With the introduction of its most recent set of menus, Princess moved “to make a more contemporary style of cuisine. We removed certain dishes that had been there for years and we put some new ones, things that are more up to date.”

Mr. Mazzone observed that today, because of television and the internet, people are “seeing what is happening, what food is being served” around the world. “We have to please these people.”

“Princess, I would say, in the past few years has been quite conservative. But now we have changed to a more contemporary style of cooking. We had to step up and provide this kind of innovation.”

At the same time, Princess also included some “home style” dishes on the menus. “The company decided to place those dishes [on the menu] for those people who are not looking for sophisticated, elaborate dishes but something they are familiar with, that they are used to eating. There are 200 to 300 of these dishes. [They change] every day. They are quite well-accepted by the passengers.”

The menu cycle also includes theme nights such as Italian night, where the menu features Italian cuisine and the waiters dress in Italian costumes. There are also special menus that coincide with the ship's formal nights.

There is a dress code for the main dining rooms. Each day, the daily program lists the evening's dress code. “We give guidelines. We suggest that the guests do certain things.”

Most evenings, the dress code is “smart casual” which means a n open-neck shirt and slacks for men and a dress, skirt and blouse, or trouser suit for women.

On formal nights, men are asked to wear a dinner jacket or dark business suit and women are asked to wear a full length evening gown, a cocktail dress or a trouser suit.

Some guests do object to having to wear a jacket and tie at any point during their vacation. However, to allow informally-dressed guests in the dining rooms on a formal night would diminish the cruise experience of the other guests. “I think it is still important. Ladies and gentlemen love to come down dressed and love to see people dressed up. The ones that don't have options. It is not that they cannot have dinner. They can utilize some other venue [such as the Horizon Court], which is always available for them.”